A MAN has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in a city centre after he saw her sitting on steps after a night out.

Radiet Meles, 31, was accused of putting his hand up a woman's skirt and touching her private parts in Newport last Christmas.

The defendant was unanimously cleared by a jury following a trial at Cardiff Crown Court.

The complainant claimed she had been sexually assaulted by Mr Meles after she had visited Newport in December 2021.

Giving evidence in his defence, he told jurors that he tried to get into the Greyhound pub in Newport that evening but he wasn’t allowed in.

He and a friend then went to a “disco” in the city he said he didn’t know the name of.

Mr Meles told the court he did not sexually assault the woman when he later came across her sitting on steps in the city centre.

The defendant said: “I touched her on the shoulder.

“She was crying, I was comforting her.

“I didn’t put my hands up her skirt.”

He said he had been drinking Jack Daniel’s whiskey that night but insisted he wasn’t drunk.

Mr Meles, of Potter Street, Newport, who was defended by Paul Hewitt, was found not guilty of sexual assault by penetration.